Editing Repressed memory (section)

== Issues ==
=== Case studies ===
Psychiatrist [[David Corwin]] has claimed that one of his cases provides evidence for the reality of repressed memories. This case involved a patient (the [[Jane Doe case]]) who, according to Corwin, had been seriously abused by her mother, had recalled the abuse at age six during therapy with Corwin, then eleven years later was unable to recall the abuse before memories of the abuse returned to her mind again during therapy.<ref name="RecalledCSA">{{cite journal | vauthors = Corwin D, Olafson E |year=1997 |title=Videotaped Discovery of a Reportedly Unrecallable Memory of Child Sexual Abuse: Comparison with a Childhood Interview Videotaped 11 Years Before |journal=[[Child Maltreatment (journal)|Child Maltreatment]] |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=91–112 | doi= 10.1177/1077559597002002001 |s2cid=143444117 }}</ref> An investigation of the case by [[Elizabeth Loftus]] and Melvin Guyer, however, raised serious questions about many of the central details of the case as reported by Corwin, including whether or not Jane Doe was abused by her mother at all, suggesting that this may be a case of false memory for childhood abuse with the memory "created" during suggestive therapy at the time that Doe was six. Loftus and Guyer also found evidence that, following her initial "recall" of the abuse during therapy at age six, Doe had talked about the abuse during the eleven years in between the sessions of therapy, indicating that even if abuse had really occurred, memory for the abuse had not been repressed.<ref>{{cite journal | journal = [[Skeptical Inquirer]] | title = Who Abused Jane Doe? The Hazards of the Single Case History Part 1 | year = 2002 | vauthors = Loftus EF, Guyer MJ |author-link1 = Elizabeth Loftus | url = http://www.csicop.org/si/show/who_abused_jane_doe_the_hazards_of_the_single_case_history_part_1/ | volume = 26 | issue = 3 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | journal = [[Skeptical Inquirer]] | title = Who Abused Jane Doe? The Hazards of the Single Case History Part 2 | year = 2002 | vauthors = Loftus EF, Guyer MJ |author-link1 =Elizabeth Loftus | url = http://www.csicop.org/si/show/who_abused_jane_doe_the_hazards_of_the_single_case_history_part_2/ | volume = 26 | issue = 4 }}</ref> More generally, in addition to the problem of false memories, this case highlights the critical dependence of repression-claims cases on the ability of individuals to recall whether or not they had previously been able to recall a traumatic event; as McNally has noted, people are notoriously poor at making that kind of judgment.<ref name="pmid17803876" />

An argument that has been made against the validity of the phenomenon of repressed memories is that there is little (if any) discussion in the historical literature prior to the 19th century of phenomena that would qualify as examples of memory repression or dissociative amnesia.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Pope HG, Poliakoff MB, Parker MP, Boynes M, Hudson JI | title = Is dissociative amnesia a culture-bound syndrome? Findings from a survey of historical literature | journal = Psychological Medicine | volume = 37 | issue = 2 | pages = 225–33 | date = February 2007 | pmid = 17156503 | doi = 10.1017/S0033291706009500 | s2cid = 27520532 }}</ref> In response to [[Harrison Pope]]'s 2006 claim that no such examples exist, [[Ross E. Cheit|Ross Cheit]], a political scientist at [[Brown University]], cited the case of [[Nina (Dalayrac)|Nina]], a 1786 opera by the French composer [[Nicolas Dalayrac]], in which the heroine, having forgotten that she saw her lover apparently killed in a duel, waits for him daily.<ref name="brown1">{{cite web | last = Baum | first = Deborah | name-list-style = vanc | date = July 7, 2009 | url = https://news.brown.edu/articles/2009/07/memory | title = Brown Professor Continues Debate Over Recovered Memory | work = Brown University News }}</ref> Pope claims that even this single fictional description does not clearly meet all criteria for evidence of memory repression, as opposed to other phenomena of normal memory.<ref name="Pope2">{{cite journal |last1=Pope |first1=Harrison |last2=Poliakoff |first2=Michael |last3=Parker |first3=Michael |last4=Boynes |first4=Matthew |last5=Hudson |first5=James | name-list-style = vanc |title=Response to R. E. Goldsmith, R. E. Cheit, & M. E. Wood, "Evidence of Dissociative Amnesia in Science and Literature: Culture-Bound Approaches to Trauma in Pope et al. (2007) |journal=Journal of Trauma & Dissociation |date=2009 |volume=10 |issue=3 |pages=254–207 |doi=10.1080/15299730902956754|s2cid=144668245 }}</ref>

Despite the claims by proponents of the reality of memory repression that any evidence of the forgetting of a seemingly traumatic event qualifies as evidence of repression, research indicates that memories of [[child sexual abuse]] and other traumatic incidents may sometimes be forgotten through normal mechanisms of memory.<ref name="Mcnally1">{{cite journal | vauthors = McNally RJ, Geraerts E | title = A New Solution to the Recovered Memory Debate | journal = Perspectives on Psychological Science | volume = 4 | issue = 2 | pages = 126–34 | date = March 2009 | pmid = 26158939 | doi = 10.1111/j.1745-6924.2009.01112.x | s2cid = 16462600 }}</ref><ref name=JournalClinPsy>{{cite journal | vauthors = Williams LM | title = Recall of childhood trauma: a prospective study of women's memories of child sexual abuse | journal = Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology | volume = 62 | issue = 6 | pages = 1167–76 | date = December 1994 | pmid = 7860814 | doi = 10.1037/0022-006X.62.6.1167 }}</ref> Evidence of the spontaneous recovery of [[traumatic memories]] has been shown,<ref name="chu">{{cite journal | vauthors = Chu JA, Frey LM, Ganzel BL, Matthews JA | title = Memories of childhood abuse: dissociation, amnesia, and corroboration | journal = The American Journal of Psychiatry | volume = 156 | issue = 5 | pages = 749–55 | date = May 1999 | pmid = 10327909 | doi = 10.1176/ajp.156.5.749 | s2cid = 24262943 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Duggal S, Sroufe LA | title = Recovered memory of childhood sexual trauma: a documented case from a longitudinal study | journal = Journal of Traumatic Stress | volume = 11 | issue = 2 | pages = 301–21 | date = April 1998 | pmid = 9565917 | doi = 10.1023/A:1024403220769 | s2cid = 38808998 }}</ref><ref name=Freyd>{{cite book |last= Freyd |first= Jennifer J. | name-list-style = vanc |title= Betrayal Trauma – The Logic of Forgetting Childhood Abuse |year= 1996 |publisher= Harvard University Press |location= Cambridge, MA |isbn= 978-0-674-06805-6 }}</ref> and recovered memories of traumatic childhood abuse have been corroborated;<ref name=Skeptics>{{cite journal |last= Cheit |first= Ross E. | name-list-style = vanc |year= 1998 |title= Consider This, Skeptics of Recovered Memory |journal= Ethics & Behavior|volume= 8 |issue= 2 |pages= 141–160 |doi= 10.1207/s15327019eb0802_4 }}</ref> however, forgetting trauma does not necessarily imply that the trauma was repressed.<ref name="Mcnally1" /> One situation in which the seeming forgetting, and later recovery, of a "traumatic" experience is particularly likely to occur is when the experience was not interpreted as traumatic when it first occurred, but then, later in life, was reinterpreted as an instance of early trauma.<ref name="Mcnally1" />

A review by [[Alan Sheflin]] and Daniel Brown in 1996 found 25 previous studies of the subject of amnesia of childhood sexual abuse. All 25 "demonstrated amnesia in a subpopulation", including more recent studies with random sampling and prospective designs.<ref>{{cite journal | author = Alan W. Sheflin, Daniel Brown |year=1996 | title = Repressed memory or dissociative amnesia: what the science says | journal = J Psychiat Law | volume = 24 | issue = 2 | pages = 143–88| doi = 10.1177/009318539602400203|s2cid=149648250 }}</ref> On the other hand, in a 1998 editorial in the ''[[British Medical Journal]]'' [[Harrison Pope]] wrote that "on critical examination, the scientific evidence for repression crumbles." He continued, "asking individuals if they 'remember whether they forgot' is of dubious validity. Furthermore, in most retrospective studies corroboration of the traumatic event was either absent or fell below reasonable scientific standards."<ref>{{cite journal | author = [[Harrison Pope]] | title = Recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse | journal = BMJ | volume = 316 | issue = 7130 | pages = 488–9 | date = February 1998 | pmid = 9501699 | pmc = 2665644 | doi = 10.1136/bmj.316.7130.488}}</ref>

A meta-analysis was conducted by McNally in 2005 to disprove misconceptions about repression, trauma, and memory. The analysis found that a significant misunderstanding with repression is that many individuals who have experienced abuse or a traumatic event often fail to recall these events because they don't recognize the events as traumatic or as an instance of abuse. This issue could arise for several reasons, one being a lack of understanding of what abuse entails, particularly in cases where the individual is a child. Because many of these traumatic events occur during childhood, the victim may not have the emotional or cognitive development to process the event as abuse or trauma. In some cases, the person may not have the language or tools to understand that their experience was harmful. Consequently, the individual may not recognize the event as something to be distressed about at the time. This lack of recognition does not mean the event did not occur, but rather that the victim may not realize the event was abuse until later in life. As they mature and gain a better understanding of abusive characteristics or trauma, victims may eventually come to the realization that their past experience was indeed abuse, prompting them to come forward years later to speak out. <ref>McNally R.J. (2005). Debunking Myths about Trauma and Memory. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. 50(13). https://doi.org/10.1177/070674370505001302</ref><ref>Clancy SA, McNally RJ. Recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse:
forgetting as a consequence of voluntary suppression. Scientific Review of
Mental Health Practice. Forthcoming.</ref><ref>McNally RJ, Perlman CA, Ristuccia CS, Clancy SA. Clinical characteristics of
adults reporting repressed, recovered, or continuous memories of childhood sexual abuse. J Consult Clin Psychol. Forthcoming.</ref>

Furthermore, research done by Deferme et al. (2024) on repressed memories emphasized that another reason individuals who experience abuse or a traumatic event don't report their recollections of abuse is due to social stigma. According to Deferme et al. (2024), victims of abuse seldom forget their recollections of a traumatic event completely and they often delay telling others about the event due to shame or fear. They may fear the stigma of being a victim of abuse, whose reports are often denied or criticized, especially if they are accusing a high profile individual. Victims of abuse may also avoid coming forward due to threats from their abuser. <ref>{{Cite journal |last=Deferme |first=Driek |last2=Otgaar |first2=Henry |last3=Dodier |first3=Olivier |last4=Körner |first4=André |last5=Mangiulli |first5=Ivan |last6=Merckelbach |first6=Harald |last7=Sauerland |first7=Melanie |last8=Panzavolta |first8=Michele |last9=Loftus |first9=Elizabeth F. |date=October 2024 |title=Repressed Memories (of Sexual Abuse Against Minors) and Statutes of Limitations in Europe: Status Quo and Possible Alternatives |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/tops.12715 |journal=Topics in Cognitive Science |language=en |volume=16 |issue=4 |pages=630–643 |doi=10.1111/tops.12715 |issn=1756-8757|hdl=11586/472963 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

===Authenticity===
Memories ''can'' be accurate, but they are not ''always'' accurate. For example, [[eyewitness testimony]] even of relatively recent dramatic events is notoriously unreliable.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Gonsalves B, Paller KA | title = Mistaken memories: remembering events that never happened | journal = The Neuroscientist | volume = 8 | issue = 5 | pages = 391–5 | date = October 2002 | pmid = 12374423 | doi = 10.1177/107385802236964 | citeseerx = 10.1.1.24.8545 | s2cid = 6625293 }}</ref> Memories of events are a mix of fact overlaid with emotions, mingled with interpretation and "filled in" with imaginings. Skepticism regarding the validity of a memory as factual detail is warranted.<ref name="pmid22577300">{{cite journal | vauthors = Schacter DL | title = Constructive memory: past and future | journal = Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience | volume = 14 | issue = 1 | pages = 7–18 | date = March 2012 | doi = 10.31887/DCNS.2012.14.1/dschacter | pmid = 22577300 | pmc = 3341652 }}</ref> For example, one study where victims of documented child abuse were reinterviewed many years later as adults, 38% of the women denied any memory of the abuse.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Williams LM | title = Recall of childhood trauma: a prospective study of women's memories of child sexual abuse | journal = Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology | volume = 62 | issue = 6 | pages = 1167–76 | date = December 1994 | pmid = 7860814 | doi = 10.1037/0022-006X.62.6.1167 | url = http://www.hss.caltech.edu/courses/2004-05/winter/psy130/Debate2Williams1.pdf | access-date = June 21, 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150924031703/http://www.hss.caltech.edu/courses/2004-05/winter/psy130/Debate2Williams1.pdf | archive-date = September 24, 2015 | url-status = dead }}</ref>

Various manipulations are considered to be able to implant false memories (sometimes called "pseudomemories"). Psychologist [[Elizabeth Loftus]] has noted that some of the techniques that some therapists use in order to supposedly help the patients recover memories of early trauma (including such techniques as age regression, guided visualization, trance writing, dream work, body work, and hypnosis) are particularly likely to contribute to the creation of false or pseudo memories.<ref name=loftus1993>{{cite journal | vauthors = Loftus EF | title = The reality of repressed memories | journal = The American Psychologist | volume = 48 | issue = 5 | pages = 518–37 | date = May 1993 | pmid = 8507050 | doi = 10.1037/0003-066x.48.5.518 | s2cid = 2015626 }}</ref> Such therapy-created memories can be quite compelling for those who develop them, and can include details that make them seem credible to others.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Laney C, Loftus EF | title = Traumatic memories are not necessarily accurate memories | journal = Canadian Journal of Psychiatry | volume = 50 | issue = 13 | pages = 823–8 | date = November 2005 | pmid = 16483115 | doi = 10.1177/070674370505001303 | s2cid = 27653977 | doi-access = free }}</ref> In a now classic experiment by Loftus (widely known as the "Lost in the Mall" study), participants were given a booklet containing three accounts of real childhood events written by family members and a fourth account of a wholly fictitious event of being lost in a shopping mall. A quarter of the subjects reported remembering the fictitious event, and elaborated on it with extensive circumstantial detail.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://faculty.washington.edu/eloftus/Articles/sciam.htm| vauthors = Loftus E |author-link=Elizabeth Loftus |year=1997|title= Creating false memories |journal=Scientific American|volume= 227|issue=3|pages=71–75 | doi = 10.1038/scientificamerican0997-70 | pmid = 9274041 | bibcode = 1997SciAm.277c..70L |url-access=subscription }}</ref> This experiment inspired many others, and in one of these, Porter et al. convinced about half of the participants that they had survived a vicious animal attack in childhood.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Porter S, Yuille JC, Lehman DR | title = The nature of real, implanted, and fabricated memories for emotional childhood events: implications for the recovered memory debate | journal = Law and Human Behavior | volume = 23 | issue = 5 | pages = 517–37 | date = October 1999 | pmid = 10487147 | doi = 10.1023/A:1022344128649 | s2cid = 19385416 }}</ref>

Critics of these experimental studies<ref name=Crook>{{cite journal | vauthors = Crook LS, Dean MC | title = "Lost in a shopping mall" -- a breach of professional ethics | journal = Ethics & Behavior | volume = 9 | issue = 1 | pages = 39–50 | year = 1999 | pmid = 11657487 | doi = 10.1207/s15327019eb0901_3 | url = http://users.owt.com/crook/memory/ | url-access = subscription }}</ref> have questioned whether their findings generalize to memories for real-world trauma or to what occurs in psychotherapeutic contexts.<ref name=Pope>{{cite journal | vauthors = Pope KS | title = Memory, abuse, and science. Questioning claims about the false memory syndrome epidemic | journal = The American Psychologist | volume = 51 | issue = 9 | pages = 957–74 | date = September 1996 | pmid = 8819364 | doi = 10.1037/0003-066X.51.9.957 }}</ref> However, when memories are "recovered" after long periods of amnesia, particularly when extraordinary means were used to secure the recovery of memory, it is now widely (but not universally) accepted that the memories have a high likelihood of being false, i.e. "memories" of incidents that had not actually occurred.<ref name=Brandon>{{cite journal | vauthors = Brandon S, Boakes J, Glaser D, Green R | title = Recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse. Implications for clinical practice | journal = The British Journal of Psychiatry | volume = 172 | issue = 4 | pages = 296–307 | date = April 1998 | pmid = 9722329 | doi = 10.1192/bjp.172.4.296 | s2cid = 41360156 }}</ref> It is thus recognised by professional organizations that a risk of implanting false memories is associated with some similar types of therapy. The ''American Psychological Association'' advises: "...most leaders in the field agree that although it is a rare occurrence, a memory of early childhood abuse that has been forgotten can be remembered later; however, these leaders also agree that it is possible to construct convincing pseudomemories for events that never occurred."<ref name=":4" />

Not all therapists agree that false memories are a major risk of psychotherapy and they argue that this idea overstates the data and is untested.<ref name="chu" /><ref name=Hammond>{{cite book |vauthors=Brown DP, Scheflin AW, Hammond DC |title=Memory, trauma treatment, and the law |publisher=W.W. Norton |location=New York |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-393-70254-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m6P7HAAACAAJ }}{{Dead link|date=October 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref name=Dalenberg>{{cite journal | vauthors = Dalenberg C | title = Recovered memory and the Daubert criteria: recovered memory as professionally tested, peer reviewed, and accepted in the relevant scientific community | journal = Trauma, Violence & Abuse | volume = 7 | issue = 4 | pages = 274–310 | date = October 2006 | pmid = 17065548 | doi = 10.1177/1524838006294572 | s2cid = 9964936 }}</ref> Several studies have reported high percentages of the corroboration of recovered memories,<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Kluft RP |year=1995 |title=The confirmation and disconfirmation of memories of abuse in Dissociative Identity Disorder patients: A naturalistic study |journal=Dissociation |volume=8 |pages=253–8 |url=https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1794/1155/Dis_8_4_9_ocr.pdf?sequence=1 }}{{Dead link|date=July 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref name=Van1995>{{cite journal | vauthors = van der Kolk BA, Fisler R | title = Dissociation and the fragmentary nature of traumatic memories: overview and exploratory study | journal = Journal of Traumatic Stress | volume = 8 | issue = 4 | pages = 505–25 | date = October 1995 | pmid = 8564271 | doi = 10.1002/jts.2490080402 | url = http://www.psych.utoronto.ca/~peterson/psy430s2001/Van%20der%20Kolk%20Fragmentary%20Nature%20of%20Traumatic%20Memory%20J%20Traumatic%20Stress%201995.pdf | citeseerx = 10.1.1.487.1607 | access-date = June 21, 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200302150756/https://www.psych.utoronto.ca/~peterson/psy430s2001/Van%20der%20Kolk%20Fragmentary%20Nature%20of%20Traumatic%20Memory%20J%20Traumatic%20Stress%201995.pdf | archive-date = March 2, 2020 | url-status = dead }}</ref> and some authors have claimed that among skeptics of idea of recovered memory there is a "tendency to conceal or omit evidence of corroboration" of recovered memories.<ref name="Skeptics" />

A difficult issue for the field is that there is no evidence that reliable discriminations can be made between true and false memories.<ref name=":4">[https://www.apa.org/topics/trauma/memories Questions and Answers about Memories of Childhood Abuse] ''American Psychiatric Association''</ref><ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Stocks JT | title = Recovered memory therapy: a dubious practice technique | journal = Social Work | volume = 43 | issue = 5 | pages = 423–36 | date = September 1998 | pmid = 9739631 | doi = 10.1093/sw/43.5.423 }}</ref> Some believe that memories "recovered" under [[hypnosis]] are particularly likely to be false.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Kihlstrom JF | title = Hypnosis, memory and amnesia | journal = Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences | volume = 352 | issue = 1362 | pages = 1727–32 | date = November 1997 | pmid = 9415925 | pmc = 1692104 | doi = 10.1098/rstb.1997.0155 | bibcode = 1997RSPTB.352.1727K }}</ref>
According to The Council on Scientific Affairs for the American Medical Association, recollections obtained during hypnosis can involve [[confabulations]] and pseudomemories and appear to be less reliable than nonhypnotic recall.<ref>{{cite journal | title = Scientific status of refreshing recollection by the use of hypnosis. Council on Scientific Affairs | journal = JAMA | volume = 253 | issue = 13 | pages = 1918–23 | date = April 1985 | pmid = 3974082 | doi = 10.1001/jama.253.13.1918 }}</ref>
Brown et al. estimate that 3 to 5% of laboratory subjects are vulnerable to post-event misinformation suggestions. They state that 5–8% of the general population is the range of high-hypnotizability. Twenty-five percent of those in this range are vulnerable to suggestion of pseudomemories for peripheral details, which can rise to 80% with a combination of other social influence factors. They conclude that the rates of memory errors run 0–5% in adult studies, 3–5% in children's studies and that the rates of false allegations of child abuse allegations run 4–8% in the general population.<ref name=Hammond/>

===Mechanisms===
Those who argue in favor of the validity of the phenomenon of repressed memory have identified three mechanisms of normal memory that may explain how memory repression may occur: retrieval inhibition, motivated forgetting, and state-dependent remembering.<ref name="Otgaar" />

====Retrieval inhibition====
[[Retrieval-induced forgetting|Retrieval inhibition]] refers to a memory phenomenon where remembering some information causes forgetting of other information.<ref name="Anderson1">{{cite journal | vauthors = Anderson MC, Bjork RA, Bjork EL | year = 1994 | title = Remembering can cause forgetting: Retrieval dynamics in long-term memory | journal = Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition | volume = 20 | issue = 5| pages = 1063–1087 | doi=10.1037/0278-7393.20.5.1063| pmid = 7931095 |citeseerx=10.1.1.119.3933 }}</ref> Anderson and Green have argued that for a linkage between this phenomenon and memory repression; according to this view, the simple decision to not think about a traumatic event, coupled with active remembering of other related experiences (or less traumatic elements of the traumatic experience) may make memories for the traumatic experience itself less accessible to conscious awareness.<ref name="Anderson2">{{cite journal | vauthors = Anderson MC, Green C | title = Suppressing unwanted memories by executive control | journal = Nature | volume = 410 | issue = 6826 | pages = 366–9 | date = March 2001 | pmid = 11268212 | doi = 10.1038/35066572 | bibcode = 2001Natur.410..366A | s2cid = 4403569 }}</ref> However, two problems with this viewpoint have been raised: (1) the evidence for the basic phenomenon itself has not consistently replicated, and (2) the phenomenon does not meet all criteria that must be met to support memory repression theory, particularly the lack of evidence that this form of forgetting is particularly likely to occur in the case of traumatic experiences.<ref name="Otgaar" />

====Motivated forgetting====
The [[motivated forgetting]] phenomenon, which is also sometimes referred to as intentional or directed forgetting, refers to forgetting which is initiated by a conscious goal to forget particular information.<ref name = "Bad">Alan Baddeley, Michael W. Eysenck & Michael C. Anderson., 2009. Memory. Motivated Forgetting (pp. 217-244). New York: Psychology Press</ref><ref>{{cite journal | doi = 10.1037/0033-2909.116.2.274 | vauthors = Johnson HM | year = 1994 | title = Processes of successful intentional forgetting | journal = Psychological Bulletin | volume = 116 | issue = 2| pages = 274–292 }}</ref> In the classic intentional forgetting paradigm, participants are shown a list of words, but are instructed to remember certain words while forgetting others. Later, when tested on their memory for all of the words, recall and recognition is typically worse for the deliberately forgotten words.<ref name = "MacLeod">{{cite journal | doi = 10.1037/0278-7393.1.3.271 | vauthors = MacLeod CM | year = 1975 | title = Long-term recognition and recall following directed forgetting | journal = Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory | volume = 1 | issue = 3| pages = 271–279 | citeseerx = 10.1.1.383.9175 | s2cid = 8446979 }}</ref> A problem for viewing motivated forgetting as a mechanism of memory repression is that there is no evidence that the intentionally forgotten information becomes, first, inaccessible and then, later, retrievable (as required by memory repression theory).<ref name="Otgaar" />

====State-dependent remembering====
The term [[State-dependent memory|state-dependent remembering]] refers to the evidence that memory retrieval is most efficient when an individual is in the same state of consciousness as they were when the memory was formed.<ref name="girden">{{cite journal | vauthors = Girden E, Culler E | title = Conditioned responses in curarized striate muscle in dogs. | journal = Journal of Comparative Psychology | date = April 1937 | volume = 23 | issue = 2 | pages = 261–274 | doi = 10.1037/h0058634 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | last = Russell | first = Dewey | name-list-style = vanc | url = http://www.intropsych.com/ch06_memory/state-dependent_memory.html | title = State-Dependent Memory | work = Psych Web | date = 2007 }}</ref> Based upon her research with rats, Radulovic has argued that memories for highly stressful traumatic experiences may be stored in different neural networks than is the case with memories for non-stressful experiences, and that memories for the stressful experiences may then be inaccessible until the organism's brain is in a neurological state similar to the one that occurred when the stressful experience first occurred.<ref name="Radulovic">{{cite journal | vauthors = Radulovic J, Jovasevic V, Meyer MA | title = Neurobiological mechanisms of state-dependent learning | journal = Current Opinion in Neurobiology | volume = 45 | pages = 92–98 | date = August 2017 | pmid = 28558266 | pmc = 5654544 | doi = 10.1016/j.conb.2017.05.013 }}</ref> At present, however, there is no evidence that what Radulovic found with rats occurs in the memory systems of humans, and it is not clear that human memories for traumatic experiences are typically "recovered" by placing the individual back in the mental state that was experienced during the original trauma.

===Amnesia===
[[Amnesia]] is partial or complete loss of memory that goes beyond mere forgetting. Often it is temporary and involves only part of a person's experience. Amnesia is often caused by an injury to the brain, for instance after a blow to the head, and sometimes by psychological trauma. [[Anterograde amnesia]] is a failure to remember new experiences that occur after damage to the brain; [[retrograde amnesia]] is the loss of memories of events that occurred before a trauma or injury. [[Dissociative amnesia]] is defined in the [[DSM-5]] as the "inability to recall autobiographical information" that is (a) "traumatic or stressful in nature", (b) "inconsistent with ordinary forgetting", (c) "successfully stored", (d) involves a period of time when the patient is unable to recall the experience, (e) is not caused by a substance or neurological condition, and (f) is "always potentially reversible". McNally<ref name="pmid17803876" /> and others<ref name="Otgaar" /> have noted that this definition is essentially the same as the defining characteristics of memory repression, and that all of the reasons for questioning the reality of memory repression apply equally well to claims regarding dissociative amnesia.

===Effects of trauma on memory===
The essence of the theory of memory repression is that it is memories for traumatic experiences that are particularly likely to become unavailable to conscious awareness, even while continuing to exist at an unconscious level. A prominent more specific theory of memory repression, "[[Betrayal Trauma Theory]]", proposes that memories for childhood abuse are the most likely to be repressed because of the intense emotional trauma produced by being abused by someone the child is dependent on for emotional and physical support; in such situations, according to this theory, dissociative amnesia is an adaptive response because it permits a relationship with the powerful abuser (whom the child is dependent upon) to continue in some form.

Psychiatrist [[Bessel van der Kolk]]<ref name=Van1995/> divided the effects of traumas on memory functions into four sets:
* Traumatic amnesia; this involves the loss of memories of traumatic experiences. The younger the subject and the longer the traumatic event is, the greater the chance of significant amnesia. He stated that subsequent retrieval of memories after traumatic amnesia is well documented in the literature, with documented examples following natural disasters and accidents, in combat soldiers, in victims of kidnapping, torture and concentration camp experiences, in victims of physical and sexual abuse, and in people who have committed murder.
* Global [[Memory disorder|memory impairment]]; this makes it difficult for subjects to construct an accurate account of their present and past history. "The combination of lack of autobiographical memory, continued dissociation and of meaning schemes that include victimization, helplessness and betrayal, is likely to make these individuals vulnerable to suggestion and to the construction of explanations for their trauma-related affects that may bear little relationship to the actual realities of their lives"
* [[Dissociation (psychology)|Dissociative processes]]; this refers to memories being stored as fragments and not as unitary wholes.
* Traumatic memories' [[Sensory-motor coupling|sensorimotor]] organization. Not being able to integrate traumatic memories seems to be linked to [[posttraumatic stress disorder]] (PTSD).<ref>Diagnostic symptoms of PTSD include reexperience such as flashbacks and nightmares, difficulty falling or staying asleep, feelings of panic or fear, depression, headache, and physiological symptoms including irregular heartbeat and diarrhoea. [http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mentalhealthinfoforall/problems/posttraumaticstressdisorder/posttraumaticstressdisorder.aspx Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)]. The Royal College of Psychiatrists</ref>

According to van der Kolk, memories of highly significant events are usually accurate and stable over time; aspects of traumatic experiences appear to get stuck in the mind, unaltered by time passing or experiences that may follow. The imprints of traumatic experiences appear to be different from those of nontraumatic events, perhaps because of alterations in attentional focusing or the fact that extreme emotional arousal interferes with memory.<ref name=Van1995/> van der Kolk and Fisler's hypothesis is that under extreme stress, the memory categorization system based in the hippocampus fails, with these memories kept as emotional and sensory states. When these traces are remembered and put into a personal narrative, they are subject to being condensed, contaminated and embellished upon.

A significant problem for trauma theories of memory repression is the lack of evidence with humans that failures of recall of traumatic experiences result from anything other than normal processes of memory that apply equally well to memories for traumatic and non-traumatic events.<ref name="Mcnally1" /><ref name="pmid17803876" /><ref name="Otgaar" /> In addition, it is clear that, rather than being pushed out of consciousness, the difficulty with traumatic memories for most people is their inability to forget the traumatic event and the tendency for memories of the traumatic experience to intrude upon consciousness in problematic ways.<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = McHugh PR | author-link = Paul R. McHugh | title = Try to remember: Psychiatry's clash over meaning, memory and mind | url = https://archive.org/details/trytorememberpsy00mchu | url-access = limited | publisher = Dana Press | isbn = 978-1-932594-39-3 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/trytorememberpsy00mchu/page/n55 45]–6 | year = 2008 }}</ref>

Evidence from psychological research suggests that most traumatic memories are well remembered over long periods of time. Autobiographical memories appraised as highly negative are remembered with a high degree of accuracy and detail.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Berntsen D | title = Tunnel memories for autobiographical events: central details are remembered more frequently from shocking than from happy experiences | journal = Memory & Cognition | volume = 30 | issue = 7 | pages = 1010–20 | date = October 2002 | pmid = 12507366 | doi = 10.3758/BF03194319 | s2cid = 20459653 | doi-access = free }}</ref> This observation is in line with psychological understanding of human memory, which explains that highly salient and distinctive events—common characteristics of negative traumatic experiences—are remembered well.<ref name="Traumatic impact predicts long-term">{{cite journal | vauthors = Alexander KW, Quas JA, Goodman GS, Ghetti S, Edelstein RS, Redlich AD, Cordon IM, Jones DP | display-authors = 6 | title = Traumatic impact predicts long-term memory for documented child sexual abuse | journal = Psychological Science | volume = 16 | issue = 1 | pages = 33–40 | date = January 2005 | pmid = 15660849 | doi = 10.1111/j.0956-7976.2005.00777.x | s2cid = 8750819 }}</ref> When experiencing highly emotional, stressful events, physiological and neurological responses, such as those involving the [[limbic system]], specifically the [[amygdala]] and [[hippocampus]], lead to more consolidated memories.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Buchanan TW | title = Retrieval of emotional memories | journal = Psychological Bulletin | volume = 133 | issue = 5 | pages = 761–79 | date = September 2007 | pmid = 17723029 | pmc = 2265099 | doi = 10.1037/0033-2909.133.5.761 }}</ref> Evidence shows that stress enhances memory for aspects and details directly related to the stressful event.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Shields GS, Sazma MA, McCullough AM, Yonelinas AP | title = The effects of acute stress on episodic memory: A meta-analysis and integrative review | journal = Psychological Bulletin | volume = 143 | issue = 6 | pages = 636–675 | date = June 2017 | pmid = 28368148 | pmc = 5436944 | doi = 10.1037/bul0000100 }}</ref> Furthermore, behavioural and cognitive memory-enhancing responses, such as rehearsing or revisiting a memory in one's mind are also more likely when memories are highly emotional.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Christianson SA | title = Emotional stress and eyewitness memory: a critical review | journal = Psychological Bulletin | volume = 112 | issue = 2 | pages = 284–309 | date = September 1992 | pmid = 1454896 | doi = 10.1037/0033-2909.112.2.284 }}</ref> When compared to positive events, memory for negative, traumatic experiences are more accurate, coherent, vivid, and detailed, and this trend persists over time.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Peace|first1=Kristine A.|last2=Porter|first2=Stephen | name-list-style = vanc |date=2004|title=A longitudinal investigation of the reliability of memories for trauma and other emotional experiences|journal=Applied Cognitive Psychology|volume=18|issue=9|pages=1143–1159|doi=10.1002/acp.1046|issn=0888-4080}}</ref> This sample of what is a vast body of evidence calls into question how it is possible that traumatic memories, which are typically remembered exceptionally well, might also be associated with patterns of extreme forgetting.

The high quality remembering for traumatic events is not just a lab-based finding but has also been observed in real-life experiences, such as among survivors of child sexual abuse and war-related atrocities. For example, researchers who studied memory accuracy in child sexual abuse survivors 12 to 21 years after the event(s) ended found that the severity of posttraumatic stress disorder was positively correlated with the degree of memory accuracy.<ref name="Traumatic impact predicts long-term"/> Further, all persons who identified the child sexual abuse as the most traumatic event of their life, displayed highly accurate memory for the event. Similarly, in a study of World War II survivors, researchers found that participants who scored higher on posttraumatic stress reactions had war memories that were more coherent, personally consequential, and more rehearsed. The researchers concluded that highly distressing events can lead to subjectively clearer memories that are highly accessible.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Thomsen|first1=Dorthe Kirkegaard|last2=Berntsen|first2=Dorthe| name-list-style = vanc |date=2009|title=The long-term impact of emotionally stressful events on memory characteristics and life story|journal=Applied Cognitive Psychology|language=en|volume=23|issue=4|pages=579–598|doi=10.1002/acp.1495}}</ref>

=== Legal status ===
Serious issues arise when recovered but false memories result in public allegations; false complaints carry serious consequences for the accused. A special type of false allegation, [[false memory syndrome]], arises typically within therapy, when people report the "recovery" of childhood memories of previously unknown abuse. The influence of practitioners' beliefs and practices in the eliciting of false "memories" and of false complaints has come under particular criticism.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Boakes J | title = False complaints of sexual assault: recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse | journal = Medicine, Science, and the Law | volume = 39 | issue = 2 | pages = 112–20 | date = April 1999 | pmid = 10332158 | doi = 10.1177/002580249903900205 | s2cid = 156854 }}</ref>

Some criminal cases have been based on a witness's testimony of recovered repressed memories, often of alleged childhood sexual abuse. In some jurisdictions, the [[statute of limitations]] for child abuse cases has been extended to accommodate the phenomena of repressed memories as well as other factors. The repressed memory concept came into wider public awareness in the 1980s and 1990s followed by a reduction of public attention after a series of scandals, lawsuits, and license revocations.<ref name=Robbins>{{cite journal| last = Robbins | first = Susan P. | name-list-style = vanc |title= The Social and Cultural Context of Satanic Ritual Abuse Allegations|journal=Issues in Child Abuse Accusations|volume=10|year= 1998|url=http://www.ipt-forensics.com/journal/volume10/j10_8.htm}}</ref>

A U.S. District Court accepted repressed memories as admissible evidence in a specific case.<ref>"The Validity of Recovered Memory: Decision of a US District Court" Judge Edward F. Harrington, Presentation by Jim Hopper Ph.D. The legal documentation citation is: 923 Federal Supplement 286 (D. Mass. 1996), United States District Court – District of Massachusetts Ann Shahzade, plaintiff Civil Action No.: V. 92-12139-EFH George Gregory, Defendant. {{cite web |url=http://www.jimhopper.com/memory-decision/ |title=The Validity of Recovered Memory: Decision of a US District Court |access-date=2012-06-21 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120319013757/http://www.jimhopper.com/memory-decision/ |archive-date=March 19, 2012 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> Dalenberg argues that the evidence shows that recovered memory cases should be allowed to be prosecuted in court.<ref name=Dalenberg/>

The apparent willingness of courts to credit the recovered memories of complainants but not the absence of memories by defendants has been commented on: "It seems apparent that the courts need better guidelines around the issue of dissociative amnesia in both populations."<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Porter S, Birt AR, Yuille JC, Hervé HF | title = Memory for murder. A psychological perspective on dissociative amnesia in legal contexts | journal = International Journal of Law and Psychiatry | volume = 24 | issue = 1 | pages = 23–42 | year = 2001 | pmid = 11346990 | doi = 10.1016/S0160-2527(00)00066-2 }}</ref>

In 1995, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, in ''Franklin v. Duncan'' and ''Franklin v. Fox, Murray'' ''et al''. (312 F3d. 423, see also 884 FSupp 1435, N.D. Calif.),<ref>Franklin v. Duncan Court Order https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=3066228776991890480</ref> that repressed memory is not admissible as evidence in a legal action because of its unreliability, inconsistency, unscientific nature, tendency to be therapeutically induced evidence, and subject to influence by hearsay and suggestibility. The court overturned the conviction of a man accused of murdering a nine-year-old girl purely based upon the evidence of a 21-year-old repressed memory by a lone witness, who also held a complex personal grudge against the defendant.<ref name="articles.sfgate.com">{{cite news| url=https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Repressed-Memory-Case-Ruling-Appeals-court-3019095.php | archive-url=https://archive.today/20130202103042/http://articles.sfgate.com/1995-11-21/news/17820388_1_appeals-court-george-franklin-repressed-memory-testimony | url-status=live | archive-date=February 2, 2013 | work=[[The San Francisco Chronicle]] | first=Reynolds | last=Holding | name-list-style = vanc | title=Repressed Memory Case Ruling / Appeals court refuses to restore murder conviction | date=June 23, 2011}}</ref><ref>[http://www.victimsofthestate.org/CA/Franklin.htm "Victims of the State: George Franklin"]. Victimsofthestate.org.</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Articles about George Thomas Sr Franklin |url=http://articles.latimes.com/keyword/george-thomas-sr-franklin |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120625061031/http://articles.latimes.com/keyword/george-thomas-sr-franklin |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 25, 2012 | work=Los Angeles Times}}</ref>

In a 1996 ruling, a U.S. District Court allowed repressed memories entered into evidence in court cases.<ref name=USCourt1996>923 Federal Supplement 286 (D. Mass. 1996); Civil Action No. 92-12139-EFH Memorandum and Order; May 8, 1996</ref> Jennifer Freyd writes that [[Ross E. Cheit]]'s case of suddenly remembered sexual abuse is one of the most well-documented cases available for the public to see. Cheit prevailed in two lawsuits, located five additional victims and tape-recorded a confession.<ref name=Freyd/>

On December 16, 2005, the Irish Court of Criminal Appeal issued a certificate confirming a Miscarriage of Justice to a former nun, [[Nora Wall]] whose 1999 conviction for child rape was partly based on repressed-memory evidence. The judgement stated that:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bailii.org/ie/cases/IECCA/2005/C140.html |title=D.P.P.-v- Nora Wall [2005&#93; IECCA 140 (16 December 2005) |publisher=Bailii.org |access-date=November 10, 2012}}</ref>

{{blockquote|There was no scientific evidence of any sort adduced to explain the phenomenon of "flashbacks" and/or "retrieved memory", nor was the applicant in any position to meet such a case in the absence of prior notification thereof.}}

On August 16, 2010, the United States Second Circuit Court of Appeals in a case reversed the conviction that relied on claimed victim memories of childhood abuse stating that "The record here suggests a "reasonable likelihood" that Jesse Friedman was wrongfully convicted. The "new and material evidence" in this case is the post-conviction consensus within the social science community that suggestive memory recovery tactics can create false memories" (p. 27, Friedman v. Rehal Docket No. 08-0297). The ruling goes on to order all previous convictions and plea bargains relying in repressed memories using common memory recovered techniques be reviewed.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-2nd-circuit/1535102.html| title=Friedman v. Rehal [Docket No. 08-0297 (16 August 2010)]}}</ref>

=== Recovered memory therapy ===
{{Main|Recovered memory therapy}}
The term "recovered memory therapy" refers to the use of a range of [[psychotherapy]] methods that involve guiding the patient's attempts to recall memories of abuse that had previously been forgotten.<ref name="lief">{{cite journal | last = Lief | first = Harold I | name-list-style = vanc | date = November 1999 | title = Patients Versus Therapists: Legal Actions Over Recovered Memory Therapy | journal = Psychiatric Times | volume = XVI | issue = 11 | url = http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/p991136.html | access-date = December 27, 2007 | archive-date = January 13, 2008 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080113205459/http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/p991136.html | url-status = dead }}</ref> The term "recovered memory therapy" is not listed in [[DSM-5]] nor is recovered memory therapy recommended by mainstream ethical and professional mental health associations.<ref name="underwager1">{{cite book | last1 = Underwager | first1 = Ralph | first2 = Hollida | last2 = Wakefield | name-list-style = vanc | author-link = Ralph Underwager | title = Return of the Furies: An Investigation into Recovered Memory Therapy |date=October 1994 | publisher = Open Court Pub Co | isbn = 978-0-8126-9271-6 | page = 360}}</ref> Critics of recovered memory therapy note that the therapy can create [[Confabulation|false memories]] through its use of powerful suggestion techniques.<ref name = Pezdek>{{cite journal | vauthors = Loftus EF, Pickrell JE | author-link1 = Elizabeth Loftus | year = 1995 | title = The formation of false memories | journal = Psychiatric Annals | volume = 25 | issue = 12 | url = http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Papers/Py104/loftusmem1.pdf | pages = 720–725 | doi = 10.3928/0048-5713-19951201-07 | s2cid = 59286093 | access-date = April 12, 2009 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081203033217/http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Papers/Py104/loftusmem1.pdf | archive-date = December 3, 2008 | url-status = dead }}</ref><ref name=pezdek1999>{{cite journal |vauthors=Pezdek K, Hodge D |date=July–August 1999 |title=Planting false childhood memories: The role of event plausibility |journal=Child Development |volume=70 |issue=4 |pages=887–895 |url=http://www.bcs.rochester.edu/people/bfaber/CSP502/2-Pezdek-1999.pdf |doi=10.1111/1467-8624.00064 }}{{Dead link|date=July 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> It has also been found that patients who retract their claims—after deciding their recovered memories are false—may have [[post-traumatic stress disorder]] due to the trauma of illusory memories.<ref name=Lambert>{{cite web | vauthors = Lambert K, Lilienfeld SO | url = http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&articleID=4338D296-E7F2-99DF-3D7F5370B4FB5D10 | publisher = Scientific American | title = Brain Stains | date = October 1, 2007 | access-date = January 25, 2008 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071025085306/http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&articleID=4338D296-E7F2-99DF-3D7F5370B4FB5D10 | archive-date = October 25, 2007 | url-status = dead }}</ref>